A Medical Device Daily

Prodesse (Waukesha, Wisconsin), which focuses on Multiplex PCR, and Invitrogen (Carlsbad, California), a provider of technologies for disease research and drug discovery, reported signing of a license agreement for the first diagnostic assays with Invitrogen's LUX (Light Upon eXtension) technology.

Utilizing Prodesse's global distribution, the partnership positions Invitrogen's technologies in new market segments, serving a new customer base, the companies said.

LUX reagents are an “essential starting point” for a broad scope of drug discovery and molecular diagnostic applications, such as gene expression studies, biomarker analysis and functional genomics experiments, the companies said. LUX was developed to provide “improved sensitivity and specificity over traditional methods of analysis and the ability to examine multiple targets in one experiment.”

“As we continue to rapidly increase our real-time products menu, access to Invitrogen's LUX platform is an important milestone,” said Tom Shannon, president/CEO of Prodesse. “Now we can provide our customers with a technology that has significant design flexibility as well the tremendous advantage of conveying service rights that do not carry royalty burdens . . . .”

“Invitrogen's partnership with Prodesse is a natural evolution of our proven technology platforms and allows us to better serve our customers through collaborations with innovative diagnostic providers,” said Gregory Lucier, CEO and chairman of Invitrogen. “Scientists in basic research and drug discovery and development have already found our LUX technology to produce more reliable data than many of the other quantitative PCR chemistries available.”

Prodesse is a biotech developing analyte-specific reagents that can be used by CLIA-certified laboratories to develop assays for detecting disease pathogens.